Never meant to be
by kg711
Summary: kakashi is an ANBU captain trying to find out who he is, can a certain little pink-hair girl really help him through-out his life?


It was a dark and perceptively calm night, clouds floated easily across a full moon. Below the tree tops were several ANBU posted in various hiding places no more than a half a mile from each other. At north from them you could see a rather young ANBU captain perched stock-still on a mount of rocks next to a river.

_Why can't I remember ?_

The captain turned his head to his right and opened up his scarred eye reveling a slowly spinning sharingan eye. He scanned the place in the direction in where his men were hiding.

_I can only think back from when I was five. Why? _

Good. I can hardly detect their chakras. He slowly turned his head to his other side and did the same to them. All right they're well hidden, now all we have to do is check now for enemy presences.

As he sat there he looked up at the sky and allowed his mind to wander.

_I was only five years old. Only five when I came in from school… no I remember I had already graduated, I was on an escorting mission that week, but I came in early. But that was the day when he killed himself. My Father. _

The teen let out a soft sigh, it was bad enough that he had to endure that, but he couldn't remember anything prior to that day. Not the mission, his teammates, the past year, nor before that. His medical doctors had called it post-trauma disorder or something. It had kind of bothered him even now. Because that means he doesn't even recall his own dad. And then after the incident with his teammates, hardly anyone dared to trust him. They worried about his mental health. When he was recommended for ANBU sign-in by the hokage himself they were reluctant to let him in. That's what everyone thought, but hey it was true, wasn't it?

He heard a soft rustle. He whipped his head to its direction, snapping his left eye open. He raised his arm up with two fingers signaling to his men. He send them out in a semi-circle around the forest, surrounding the enemy, but to his side. Considering the enemy's base camp was probably just ahead to where they were. Probably. It was a new strategy he was trying out with his men, and they all knew it.

He sensed them rush in quietly, closing in and then silence. He closed his eyes and hoped it was his side that had won.

He slowly opened them as he heard someone walking closer to where he was. It paused, then a voice called out, "captain?"

He sighed. Really? Calling him out like that? He never liked this guy. He was a bit too stubborn for his own good. He looked at the darkness trying to ignore him, thinking, but the brown-haired ANBU masked guy just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

" Hey captain, nice tactic," he sneered. "I can't believe it worked!" In a sarcastic voice, he added, "luck must have been on your side, huh?" He started chuckling. " you know what the guys are saying, right? You prob- uhg" the word caught in his throat as he jumped back reflexively.

"C-captain?" looking through the shadows he saw his superior turning his head to glare at him. With his face half covered by darkness he could only see his left side, and his sharingan was open. Looking at _him_**.**

Now, throughout the years he was used to having harsh words lashed out at him, dirty looks from those of higher rank than him, but his eye had that dark, twisted look he only recognized in experience from those of countless battles he fought. That look of intent kill from the enemy. What did it mean?

Silence drew out between them. The only sounds were from the natural noise of the forest. But even that seemed distant.

He stood utterly still as his captain rose up, stepped lightly from the rocks and started walking towards him. He was closer to him, and started walking past him. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. But he flinched when he heard his stoic voice suddenly warn out.

"We're on a mission for the moment, so stop acting inappropriately to the situation. Or it will cost your life."

He kept on walking to meet with the other men. As he left, the ANBU soldier turned around to his captain's back and muttered, " what's wrong with him?"

After the captain caught up with his men, he gave them the details of the mission.

" All right soldiers. The scout will be here in a moment to give us information of the enemy camp site. As far as I'm informed these people are not dangerous, but have caused tension between villages by kidnapping their people and selling them to other villages. So this has to stop."

" We have wiped out some of their hired ninja, but it is possible that there are more protecting their slave caravan. So be on aware. Watch out for survivors. And don't die."

Used to that saying, everybody just nodded.

'sir, enemy reports in. The enemy is camped at the bottom of a crater.'

"well done." acknowledging him with a curt nod. This is convenient, he thought. The target camped in a crater ground is in our favor, meaning we can just swoop in from above, and have the element of surprise.

"All right soldiers, fan out, surround the camp, and await my signal."

'SIR!'

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Standing at the edge of the crater, he crouched carefully behind a shrub. He looked down at the site. He could only see a small girl, just at the edge were older people lying down next to her appearing dead. Huge tents surrounded them, and beyond them were people bustling around with a fire burning in the middle of the camp.

He took out a small reflector and slowly moved it back and forth, sending out the signal.

And it began.

The sound of shinobi battle reached his ears as he fitted his ANBU mask on and dropped down silently below. He crept slowly to nearby mound of rocks and hid behind it. He peered over the rocks and saw the little girl sitting motionless with her head hung and pink hair sticking all over. Hmm. Wait. Pink hair? That's unusual. Well anyway she must be part of the slave group.

"Hey, little girl," he called out gently, raising a hand in greeting. She looked up and immediately her green eyes opened wide in fear and tears slowly leaked from them, rolling down her cheeks.

Oh hell, what is wrong with her. If she starts yelling they'll find us out.

But she only let out a whimper.

"shh , hey what's wrong'?

She barely held up her finger at him and whispered something.

" eh, what"?

'm-er.'

This was getting irritating.

'say again'

'MONSTER, YOU'RE A MONSTER!'

Oh, really?

.

'hey, hey calm down, I'm no monster, see? He took off his ANBU mask, hoping that was the cause of the problem, and the little girl would relax.

She did. Well that was good. He didn't need a scene started on a stealth mission.

'So if you're not gonna hurt me, then ar-are you here to rescue me?' she asked him. He gave a slight nod. Smart girl. Still what was up with the pink hair? Its strange. He felt weird to be intrigued by it, but he had never seen hair that color. He wondered if it was soft…

"oh yay!!' the little girl yelled, interrupting his thoughts. She jumped up to hug him around his neck, her movements hindered only by a heavy chain tied to her ankle to a spike buried deep in the ground. He recoiled a little at the unexpected touch. Wow, when was the last time he felt somebody else's warmth? And here was a strange little girl of about five breaking the boundaries.

"ok then-'

'What's your name?' the little girl said casually.

'Huh?'

'your name'

Oh boy what was he gonna do? Lie to a little girl and tell her his code name? Or just break ANBU code? Hmm, well he wasn't know for following the rules that closely anyway. Well at least not since recent years.

'Its ah -' he paused for a second . 'Kakashi. ANBU captain kakashi., at your service. '

The little girl giggled. But Kakashi didn't thought it was funny. For a whole moment there he had actually forgotten his name. When _had_ he last used his own name? Was he slowly forgetting who he was? The whole concept actually worried him a little.

"well lets go, your whole group is dead anyway, you're the only survivor apparently.'

" ok!' she said, a little too cheerful. She turned to let go of him, her hair fell over Kakashi's arm while she moved.

' so.. ' he said stalling for time as he reached his hand closer to feel her hair. He just _had_ to know if it was as soft as it looked. "what's your name? It would probably be like 'sakura' or something.' As soon as he said it he mentally kicked himself for the lame joke.

" I don't know'

He snapped his hand back in surprise at her comment. Damn, he missed his chance. Oh, well he probably wouldn't feel it trough his clawed ANBU glove anyway, he thought sighing.

" well, what do you mean'

" I really don't know, I can't remember anything from a few days.'

Kakashi drew a sharp breath. Now why did that sound familiar? Why, she was just like him!

' well what does 'sakura mean?' she then asked timidly, ' you said something about that.'

' oh, yes it means cherry blossoms, see because of your pink hair'- he stopped then at the look of her face. He smiled. 'A little lame huh?'

'No! I like it.' she said softly. ' I want that to be my name.' with a shy smile she looked up at him.

'well okay then if you like it' What a strange kid, he thought. He heard an explosion somewhere on the other side of the camp. He could smell the bitter smell of charred flesh through his mask already, which probably meant the fight was getting worse.

'No time anymore, let's go.' he stood up and held out a hand to help her up.

'I can't'

He sighed. 'and why not?'

She made a gesture to the thick chains that held her captive.

'oh, right. Well no problem then.' With a reassuring smile, he held up two fingers and focused a small amount of his chakra into them. Converting it to his natural electrical element, he soon had a small lighting bolt ray at the tip of his fingers. He enjoyed the look of awe in the little girl's face, as he leaned closer to cut the chains near her foot.

She kept amazingly calm as he quickly sliced it in half and stood her up.

Why is she so trusting? He mused. Well I'd probably be too if I was technically the first nice person she 'met' in her life.

He grabbed her hand to lead her through camp, carefully avoiding the burning tents crashing to the ground around them.

'where are we going!?! The little girl yelled over the roar of the fire. He was trotting, even though it took all she had just to keep up with him. But she gave a small gasp of surprise as she looked up only to see the man with his ANBU mask back on. She stumbled in fear, and she tried to pry her hand from his.

' hey, calm down'

She stopped as she heard his voice directed to her , she looked up at him again. Bewildered she thought, could it really be the same guy as before?! Were things really not what they seem ?

Kakashi looked down to her to for a second to check if she was ok. But he stopped suddenly and felt the little girl bump into him with a small grunt. He quickly pulled his mask up to his hair and opened his sharingan wide.

'oh shit,' he managed to say as a huge explosion blew both of them away.


End file.
